Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Fianna Fáil its motion. This issue needs to be talked about. It is sad to note this evening the number of Ministers and Deputies on the other side who have walked out on one of the most important issues we could talk about in the country. Some 57,000 people face eviction over the next 18 months. They will basically be thrown out of their houses. There will probably be 57,000 more rent allowances. People are being thrown out of their homes because the rent allowance did not even cover the rent they must pay each week.

We, as a nation, can keep burying our heads in the sand over this. We can remain in denial but, sooner or later, we must face up to the mortgage crisis. For the past four or five years, there was silence in respect of it but, over the next year however, it will become rampant. The House needs to get together constructively to sort out the problems we face in the next year to 18 months.

There are problems right around the country. I would like the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, to listen to me very carefully. A director of services in a certain county can buy houses for 50% of the price that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is stating they should be got for. Sadly, however, that director of services is being told he must go to a greenfield site, have new sewerage and water services installed and, above all, get consultants to resolve the problem. The country loves consultants. This is frustrating various councils around the country and I ask the Government to examine this. If two houses can be got for the price of one, I would class it as good value for money. We must resolve this problem. If we do not do so, it will become even worse and cost the country even more. As a Dáil, we should sit down and resolve the mortgage crisis once and for all.

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